


Bookshop Dribbles

by RosalindInPants



Series: May Drabbles [2]
Category: The Great Library Series - Rachel Caine
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, bookshops, dribbles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:01:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24104842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosalindInPants/pseuds/RosalindInPants
Summary: A series of dribbles on locations where Jess opens bookshops after Sword and Pen. There will be some very brief, very vague mentions of canon traumas and troubles, but nothing graphic. No room for that in 50 words! Let's call this highly experimental. Can I write things this short? We shall see!1. London2. Spain3. Rome4. Philadelphia5. Sea Journey6. Oxford7. Castle Raby
Series: May Drabbles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1725844
Comments: 17
Kudos: 6
Collections: Volume Two - May Event for The Great Library





	1. Chapter 1

Jess’s first bookshop was in Alexandria. The Curia insisted.

For the second, he insisted on London. He chose a cozy shop with a flat above. He wrote a contract stipulating that Callum Brightwell could never own it. Never even set foot inside. Unnecessary, hopefully.

He handed his mother the keys.


	2. Chapter 2

He opened the third in Spain. That was Dario’s fault, of course. King Ramon gave Khalila and Dario the property as an engagement gift, and the two of them offered the use of it to Jess.

“Open it in time for the wedding. Make it your present to us, Scrubber."


	3. Chapter 3

Next was Rome. No one asked him to, but Jess did it for Thomas. For Wolfe. They deserved to see the fruits of their labor being sold there, of all places.

On seeing it, Thomas swept Jess into a hug.

Wolfe walked between shelves, dark and silent as a shadow.


	4. Chapter 4

Philadelphia was fifth, a diplomatic necessity. There would be no treaty with President Askuwheteau without the establishment of a printing shop and bookstore as a gesture of good faith.

They’d been rebuilding for almost a year by the time Jess got there. He still smelled the smoke. He always would.


	5. Chapter 5

Jess hadn’t planned to open his sixth bookshop on the ship back from America, but it happened. At dinner with the captain, a Muslim man who said Khalila had once saved his life, he talked of business, and by dessert, the deal was done. Bored passengers would make eager customers.


	6. Chapter 6

Jess had wanted to open a shop in Oxford sooner, but negotiations between England and Wales slowed the rebuilding. The Morgan Hault Memorial Bookshop opened in the old Serapeum, which seemed fair.

Between the stacks, Jess thought he saw her. Heart pounding, he turned to look. But she was gone.


	7. Chapter 7

From Oxford, Jess traveled to Castle Raby. This one, too, had taken time. There had been laws to exploit, courts to petition. With ownership now in the right hands, this would be the center of English printing.

At the gate, Cousin Frederick met Jess, a little girl on his hip.


End file.
